


Five Things Seth Gecko Learned about Teenage Girls and One Thing He Learned About Himself

by Annfan



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, References to drug usage, mexican honeymoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 03:45:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15655098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annfan/pseuds/Annfan
Summary: Seth Gecko hasn’t really lived with a woman and he certainly has never lived with a teenage girl. And boy does he have a lot to learn about teenage girls.





	Five Things Seth Gecko Learned about Teenage Girls and One Thing He Learned About Himself

Seth Gecko has never lived with a woman for an extended period of time. He had been so young when his mother left he doesn’t even know what she looked like.

Sure, he’d had plenty of girlfriends (if you could honor most of his short lived romantic encounters with that title). He’d also been married to a woman, but he and Vanessa had barely lived together for a month after their shotgun wedding before he got himself thrown in the slammer.

Seth Gecko hasn’t really lived with a woman and he certainly has never lived with a teenage girl. And boy does he have a lot to learn about teenage girls. 

 

The first thing he learns is that teenage girls are completely anal about their skin. For the first few days after the events at the Titty Twister Kate makes do with motel soap. They are both too tired to go anywhere other than the supermercado down the street from the motel which is where they get microwaveable meals. Kate doesn’t have any clothes other than those on her back, so Seth loans her a pair of his boxers and a plain grey T-shirt so that she can wash hers in the sink.

On the third day though, Kate insists that they go buy some “basic necessities.” That’s how Seth finds himself in the beauty section of a Walmart (because apparently Walmart is fucking everywhere, even good old Mexico), while Kate carefully inspects a bottle of clear liquid with small orange beads suspended in it. 

Seth clears his throat, “What’s that?” 

“Face wash,” Kate responds, and sticks in the shopping cart. 

Seth frowns. “Can’t you just use the free motel soap?” 

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because Kate looks at him like he’s grown two heads and says “Do you WANT me to break out?” 

“Um...no?”

She rolls her eyes and puts some more stuff in the cart. Stuff she tells him is “moisturizer” and “face serum.” 

And after that they aren’t done, no now they have to go to the fucking makeup aisle so she can get face powder and tinted lip balm. It’s a whole lot less than Vanessa used to wear, but Seth wouldn’t exactly call it a “necessity.” But Seth isn’t a teenage girl so what does he know. The most skincare he’s ever done is putting antibiotic cream on cuts after a fistfight.

They finally get to the register and Seth shoves a wad of money towards the cashier while Kate waits expectantly. The face stuff alone (not counting the toothbrush, toothpaste, razors, hairbrush, or pack of paisley patterned underwear) is a whopping 30 pesos. 

“Thanks,” Kate says as he shoves the plastic shopping bag covered in annoying smiley faces towards her. 

 

The second thing Seth learns about teenage girls is that their hair gets fucking everywhere. It’s down right supernatural, Seth thinks, that Kate can shed so much hair and not be bald. 

Kate always showers first. Seth would like to say it’s because he’s a gentlemen but it’s really because she always makes a beeline for the bathroom and closes the door before he has the chance to call dibs. 

When Seth finally gets to shower (hopefully before she uses up the limited hot water supply in whatever piece of crap motel they are in) there is a fucking mosaic of hair on the wall. Long, brown, teenage girl hair. Okay, so it’s probably not more than 4 or 5 pieces of hair, but it’s still fucking gross. 

One day they are sitting at the unbalanced, stained round table in another motel, planing how Seth is going to rob a convenience store a few blocks away. Seth is emphatically explaining every step of the plan, focusing on Kate’s job as the getaway driver when she silently reaches towards his face. He instinctively flinches away for a second but she just grazes her hand over his scruffy beard before pulling back and releasing a long brown hair, which floats to the floor. 

“Sorry,” she blushes, “that was just really bugging me.” 

What the fuck? How the hell did Kate’s hair get in Seth’s BEARD? His face was no where near Kate’s head. Fucking supernatural teleporting hair, there’s no other explanation for it.  

 

The third thing Seth learns is that teenage girls, like all teenagers, have the annoying urge to rebel against authority in all its forms. Now that Kate’s father is dead Seth Gecko, common thief, is the closest thing to a parental figure that she’s got. Which is pretty fucked up, Seth thinks; he’s a pretty shitty excuse for a guardian. But Seth Gecko never half does a job and he’s decided that keeping Kate Fuller reasonably safe is his job. 

One of the things that is essential to that job though, is Kate Fuller actually doing what he says when he says it. Unfortunately for him she isn’t very good at that. Seth isn’t oblivious, he knows Richie never liked taking orders from him. But at least by the time they were adults Richie had gotten used to Seth bossing him around. He might have complained, but when it came down to it he would follow what Seth said. 

Kate, on the other hand, questions everything. Not that Seth can really blame her, his shitty decisions are what got her entire family murdered by ancient Mayan bloodsuckers. That’s not the point though, the point is Seth is a 29 year old career criminal who knows more about how to survive on the run than a 17 year old church girl from Bethel, Texas. 

Sometimes Seth thinks Kate is being obstinate just for the sake of obstinance.

“I think we should go to a smaller town,” she’s saying. “Isn’t it more likely that the big city cops will have your mugshot everywhere?” 

Seth rolls his eyes, “No more likely than small town policia having my mugshot. Big cities are easier to lay low. Better for blending in. Small towns are full of snoops and gossips.” 

“Yeah but big cities have more places for culebras to hide,” she folds her arms over her chest. 

Seth throws his arms up. “They were in a goddamn strip club in the middle of the desert. They could be hiding anywhere.”

“But...” Kate begins. 

He interrupts her, “No, we’re going to Guadalajara and that’s it. This isn’t a democracy.” 

“No, it’s a dictatorship apparently,” she mutters under her breath. 

That’s it. Seth’s has had it with the attitude. “Watch it,” he growls. 

She shrinks back a little and Seth feels a little bit guilty. But then she narrows her eyes at him and gives him this LOOK, and he’s fuming again. He spins around and announces that he’s going to the liquor store and to not open the door for anyone. 

 

The fourth thing Seth learns is that periods are no joke. One morning after a very successful night of hustling unsuspecting tourists at poker he wakes up and doesn’t see Kate in her bed.

Must be the bathroom he figures, and he flops over in bed, rubbing at his temples to try to chase away a hangover induced headache. He waits about fifteen minutes and there is still no sign of Kate and he really needs to piss. 

Seth drags himself out of bed and shuffles over to the bathroom door and knocks on it. “You in there?”   

“Yes,” comes the weak response, followed by the very distinct sound of Kate puking. 

Well, shit. Seth hopes it wasn’t the tacos from last night because he ate them too. 

It’s a few more minutes before Kate opens the door and slinks over to her bed and crawls under the covers. “Sorry,” She sniffs, “I don’t feel so good today.” 

As soon as Seth empties his bladder he comes out and sits down on the edge of the bed. She has herself wrapped up in a blanket cocoon despite the Mexican heat, and is in a fetal position facing the wall. 

“What’s wrong?” Seth asks. He’s pretty sure it isn’t food poisoning at this point, he feels fine. And it definitely isn’t a hangover, she was with him last night, and unlike him she has made her rum and coke last the whole evening. 

She visibly blushes and tries to burrow her face into the pillow. “Lady problems,” she groans. 

Yikes, Seth remembers Vanessa loosing her appetite sometimes on the first day of her period, but nothing like this. Do teenage girls have more hardcore periods? Fuck if Seth knows. 

“Can...can you get me some stuff?” Kate asks. The poor girl looks like she wants to die of embarrassment. 

“Yeah, sure.” Seth tries to make it sound like it’s no big deal. “What do you need?” 

“Um, some tampons. And some nighttime pads.” She pauses, “and some painkillers, it really really hurts.” 

“Be right back,” Seth gives her arm what he hopes is a comforting pat. “Hang in there Princess.” 

Seth slips on some sunglasses and drags his hungover ass to the pharmacia to try to locate feminine hygiene products. The tampons are easy enough, but there are what seems like a hundred different kinds of pads and he doesn’t speak Spanish so he has no idea what they say. He finally locates a pack with a little moon on it and the word “noche” so he figures those must be the “nighttime” ones Kate told him to get. He grabs some painkillers and juice and a bar of chocolate on his way and slips out the door at the same time a frazzled mother and her five children enter, so that the cashier doesn’t notice he didn’t buy anything. 

When he gets back Kate is back in the bathroom and he hears the sound of faint moaning coming through the door. He raps on the door and it opens just enough for him to shove through the stuff.

“Thanks,” She says, and it sounds incredibly pitiful. 

Seth kicks off his shoes and shrugs off his jacket before settling down on the bed. A few minutes later Kate staggers over, looking like death, and crawls weakly towards him. He holds out his arm and lets her nestle into his side. They lay there for a while, watching an old western with Spanish subtitles on tv while Seth softly rubs circles on Kate’s back. Eventually she closes her eyes and her breathing evens out and Seth holds her while she sleeps. They don’t talk about it the next day. 

 

The fifth thing Seth learns is that teenage girls are sensitive. Sometimes sensitive in the bad, feelings easily hurt kind of way. Seth is not a nice person. Seth has never been a nice person. Seth says things that are sharp and jabbing and intended to hurt people. He also says mean things sometimes just out of reflex that he doesn’t really mean. 

Richie could always give as good as he could take with Seth. He and Seth were raised on pain and suffering. They threw insults like praises and punches like they were “I love yous.” 

So when Seth jokingly tells Kate not to be a “fucking idiot,” he quickly realizes that she doesn’t see it as a joke. She doesn’t respond by cussing at him or saying something equally rude. She just turns away from him to stare out the car window and he feels like he kicked a puppy. 

Kate is also sensitive in a good way though. All Seth needs to do is brush his hand across her cheek or her arm or the small of her back and she’s leaning into him, pressing her small, warm body up against his. Seth has always been a tactile person, he needs to feel, to touch to assure himself he is alive. Kate needs touch as well. Her family had always been affectionate and loving, warm hugs and kisses on the cheek. The kind of touch Seth provides her is far from familial but it helps soothe the deep loneliness that aches in her bones. 

Seth ghosts his fingers across the sharp jut of her hipbones or the soft curve of her belly and she keens, body pressing upwards, trying to get closer to him. He threads his hand through her hair and tugs slightly, fingers grazing her scalp, and she lets out a breathy, pleased moan that he swallows with his mouth on hers. 

Seth knows that he is probably corrupting an innocent, impressionable young girl, but the way she digs her nails into his back and pulls him closer tells him that she wants him to.

 

The thing Seth Gecko learns about himself is that he really doesn’t mind living with a teenage girl. Sure there’s the hormones, and the sassiness. But there’s also the little crinkly, joyful smile that Kate gets when she sees a cute puppy or a baby that makes Seth smile too. Or the way she quietly slips into his bed and intertwines her soft, small hand with his on the nights he wakes up screaming. Or the way that her soft lips feel up against his that makes him want to drink in every last bit of her.There’s the way she feels everything so deeply and lives life with so much intensity. She has so much pain in her eyes, he can see it every second of every day, but unlike Seth she doesn’t try to wash it away with booze or drugs. Instead, she just gets up every morning with a look of hopeful determination and plants her feet on the floor, ready to face the day. Seth never would have guessed that a teenage girl could be so much stronger than him.

Of course like most things in Seth’s life he doesn’t realize how good what they’ve got going is until he’s royally screwed it all up. He doesn’t realize how much he really misses Kate Fuller until she’s probably halfway back to the Texas border, and he’s sitting on the floor of dirty motel, alone, with a needle sticking in his arm. 


End file.
